Instant Messages To Israel Warned Of WTC Attack

Instant Messages To Israel Warned Of WTC Attack
By Brian McWilliams, Newsbytes
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 27 Sep 2001
http://technews.com/cgi-bin/udt/im.display.printable?client.id=newsbytes&story.id=170583
Officials at instant-messaging firm Odigo confirmed today that two
employees received text messages warning of an attack on the World
Trade
Center two hours before terrorists crashed planes into the New York
landmarks.
Citing a pending investigation by law enforcement, the company declined
to
reveal the exact contents of the message or to identify the sender.
But Alex Diamandis, vice president of sales and marketing, confirmed
that
workers in Odigo's research and development and international sales
office
in Israel received a warning from another Odigo user approximately two
hours prior to the first attack.
Diamandis said the sender of the instant message was not personally
known
to the Odigo employees. Even though the company usually protects the
privacy of users, the employees recorded the Internet protocol address
of
the message's sender to facilitate his or her identification.
Soon after the terrorist attacks on New York, the Odigo employees
notified
their management, who contacted Israeli security services. In turn, the
FBI was informed of the instant message warning. FBI officials were not
immediately available for comment today.
The Odigo service includes a feature called People Finder that allows
users to seek out and contact others based on certain interests or
demographics. Diamandis said it was possible that the attack warning
was
broadcast to other Odigo members, but the company has not received
reports
of other recipients of the message.
In addition to operating its own messaging service network, Odigo has
licensed its technology to over 100 service providers, portals,
wireless
carriers, and corporations, according to the company.
Odigo is online at http://www.odigo.com .
Reported by Newsbytes, http://www.newsbytes.com .